The Stages of Brain and Spinal Cord Cancer

The term stage refers to the extent your tumor has spread. The stage is important in determining the likelihood of cure with treatment.

Tumors of the brain and spinal cord — the central nervous system — are different than other cancers, however. Because they rarely spread to other parts of the body (which is what is dangerous about other cancers), there is no formal staging system for brain and spinal cord tumors.

The risk with brain and spinal cord tumors is that though they are not fast growing and do not often spread (metastasize), they eventually will invade the brain.